With almost all of our communication being transported invisibly over the air, it is easy to understand those who come to believe in the conspiracy theories that we are all being tracked and that all of our calls can be monitored.
The fact is that whether it is happening or it isn’t, it is certainly a possibility, thanks to the increasingly advanced technology known as IMSI-catchers.
Whether in the hands of the ‘good guys’ or the ‘bad ones’, IMSI catchers are usually deployed with discretion (there is no use advertising to the world that you are trying to “spy on their phone”) and without the knowledge or cooperation of the cellular operator.
Therefore, significant advances have been made with respect to how they can be concealed and transported, and how they can be operated with little or no manual human intervention.
Of course, usually the bigger they are, the more powerful the signal and the greater the range of detection.
The more sophisticated models are able to monitor a wide range of active devices as well as target specific IMEI/IMSI numbers.
IMSI-catchers insert themselves into the mobile communication network by ‘fooling’ the mobile devices in the area that they are simply another BTS (base transceiver station) with a strong signal, so the devices communicate through them thinking that they are communicating directly with the cellular network. They are a key component in the arsenal of many law-enforcement agencies, constantly evolving in pace with advances in cellular communications and improvements in the security measures of the devices themselves.
As the networks evolve, so do their security protocols.
Our IMSI catcher monitoring system, designed to detect the IMSIs and the IMEIs present and active in the designated area for both 2G and 3G Phones. This capability enables the device’s operators to identify possible threats.
The IMSI 400 was specifically designed to provide maximum capacity flexibility as the BTS number can vary from 1 BTS – 8 BTS (8 BTS is the current maximum design) in a single drawer (several drawers can be supplied) as each BTS is Software Defined Radio BTS in the technology in which it is working.
This means that once a technology has been chosen, GSM or UMTS, the BTS in the defined technology is SDR.
